Three stragglers from the retreating British army reach a bombed-out house and pause to figure out a shortcut to the sea. High up in a tree hangs a pale, smooth leg, severed cleanly above the knee. Two of the stragglers are corporals, Nettle and Mace and the third is a private, Robbie Turner. The corporals defer to Robbie, who looks and sounds like an officer and can read a compass, the one skill they need to reach the coast. Robbie seeks privacy to examine a wound below his rib cage. It does not look as bad today.
Robbie knows they must stay off the road as they swing westward toward the setting sun. They come upon a farmhouse, where Robbie speaks to the owner in French. They push past the frail but energetic woman.....
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